The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors

The Isis Papers
be able to parent them effectively. The same infants and children will
experience physical, social and psychological neglect. These children
will experience physical and sexual abuse. They will experience being
inadequately housed, clothed and fed. They will experience abandonment
to welfare systems and foster homes. They subsequently will experience
failw-e to achieve academically, and then fail to perfonn adequately on
scholastic achievement tests. Because of their frustration from being
stressed and inadequately cared for, they will fail to attend school.
Eventually they will drop out of school. Many Black children and youth
will become involved with drugs-either to medicate often unrecognized
major depression, or to sell drugs to solve their own or their family's
financial difficulties. Perhaps both. The drugs will be used to suspend
briefly a grinding sense of hopelessness and doom. Then addiction sets
in. Other Black children and youth will become obsessed with sexual
activity to compensate for a profound sense of unmet dependency needs
that immature and overwhelmed parents could not and cannot address.
The outcome from this will be AIDS, other venereal diseases, male and
female prostitution and another generation of teenage pregnancy and
inadequate parenting. The destroyed sense of self, the negative selfimage
and self-concept that derive from these overwhelming and stressful
circumstances lead these children and youth (who have been baby-sat by
the television set), to conclude that it is acceptable to use drugs and to sell
drugs to one another. And, in ever-increasing numbers, Black children
and youth are concluding that it is perfectly alright to shoot and kill one
another when drug deals go badly, or to kill one another for an expensive
pair of shoes or sunglasses, designer sweat suits, leather gold chains or
clothing. Both these activities lead to their certain incarceration.
By now, every thinking Black person is familiar with these all-toocommon
reports and their accompanying statistics. However, scientists
and clinicians, as opposed to mere technicians, should not simply gather
statistical data. The statistical data must be examined, understood and
interpreted in depth, then placed in proper perspective. Such a process .
allows for the problems that are reflected in the statistical data to be solved ·.
and prevented from occurring in the future.
Racism and Black Child I nferiorization
Generally, it is assumed that a society or soc· l
support the development of all of .ts . f:
1
~ power system seeks to
m ants, children and th Th. .
a totally erroneous assumpti' . . you . 1s IS
on m a SOCial pow .
for the purpose of h. . er system bmlt upon racism
w Ite genetic survival. Th . .
even when the white s
e assumption IS erroneous
Thus far Black 1 uphremacy system is highly refmed and masked
' peop e ave failed to decoct f1 •
established to maintam' wh't . e Ully the power system
I e genetic survival And
that we have failed to d . · • to the same extent
un erstand white ge ti .
supremacy we have r:·~aed t ne c survtval or white
' I:Ul o control the sym to th .
destructive power dynamic h' h . . . P ms at anse from this
, w IC IS positioned . th .
development of Black geneti d . . agamst e maxunal
In . c an constitutional potential
. a SOCial power system established fi . . .
chtldren classified as non- h't (bl or white genetic survival,
. . . w I e ack, brown red and 11 )
mfenonzedsystematically so thatth '11 ' ye ow are
and susceptible to control throughoeuyt Wthl. becl' omeandremaindependent
Erik err tves In the te · 1
H. Erikson, author of Childhood d S . . rmmo ogy of
environment supports the de I . ~ an . OClety, when the social
ve opmg 1etus mfant hild .
adult existence, the child. s s ch . ' ' c and youth mto
the following eight stages: PI~ b o~soctal development advances through
industry, 5) identity 6) t'nu· a7st)c trust, 2) autonomy, 3) initiative, 4)
' macy, genemtivity d fi
However, each one of these eight sta es . 'an mal~y, 8? integrity.
society fails to support the child g ~ Its counterpart m failure when
systematically Inste d th .
system subjects the infant child d · a • e socrnl power
stress. Instead of basic m:st th an. y~uth to ~n overwhelming degree of
.. ' ere ts mtstrust; mstead of au ton
1s shame and doubt· instead of . . . .
omy, there
cannot" "I ' . mttlative, there is guilt (the sense of "I
versus can"); mstead of industry th . . . .
gy); instead of ·d · . • ere Is mfenonty (or lethar-
1
•
entity • there ts role confusion· · d . .
IS isolation; instead of generat' 't the . , mstea ofmtimacy, there
tegrity, there is despair. lVI y, re IS stagnation; instead of in-
This process of failed psycho- . 1 d .
by all levels of envrr· tal SOCia evelopment, whtch is brought on
onmen stress that oc d .
domination and impact Bla k 1 cur un er white supremacy
c peop e most heavily fi .
hers of Black infants hildre . ' orces massive num-
' c n and youth mto th d ·
events that I have referred to th e estructtve chain of
as e process of inferiorization: mistrust,
252
253